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I’m sure you know what my title is talking about. That totally fantabulous song by the Korean rapper PSY! I won’t go into it too much but I just wanted to share that I live in Gangnam now. Social commentary on Korea aside, Gangnam is pretty nice to live in..in some respects. The fact that so much of the country’s top businesses are here means that it’s not the cleanest place to live. However, where there’s money, there are tons of hot girls! (and hot girls are always a sight for sore eyes) That being said, it’s unfortunate (?) that although there are many hot girls they all sort of look alike. Maybe this is due to the fact that Gangnam has the most plastic surgery clinics all centrally located.

This leads me to my topic of finally getting a full time job after several months of either being jobless or working part time (mostly the former). My full time job is conveniently at a plastic surgery clinic! Ha ha hah..what a twist eh? Now, the position I am working is a part of the “Global Business” team and I am the ‘English expert.’ I am in the office for at least 10 hours a day with a 1 hour lunch break. However, even though this is my first ‘real job’ working for corporate Korea is not easy. Long hours with no overtime pay and even worse I hardly get any vacation, I even work Saturdays! I will not give up though. This job will give me good experience and help me grow and learn more about Korean culture as well as Advertising/Marketing/Business related stuff. I see it as this way. I am thankful for the opportunity and even though the pay is pretty weak, I work for a plastic surgery clinic! If I work hard and get recognition here maybe I will get a nice pay boost.

I am thankful for many things and count my blessings everyday. Living in Gangnam definitely has its perk including 24-hour everything! (almost) I can get food delivered 24/7, even call something of a ‘maid service’ to clean my house or an ‘errand boy’ to get me medicine when I am sick. No wonder living here costs so damn much because of the convenience especially the transportation! I have access to 4 different subway lines, 2 are between 5-15 minutes away and 2 are between 15-20 minutes walking distance. I did not even mention the huge amount of buses I can take to almost anywhere within Seoul and surrounding suburbs. Anyways, I can legitimately tell a younger woman I encounter and say “Oppa Gangnam style” because I live in Gangnam hehe..

Unfortunately, ‘Gangnam style’ has been way too overplayed. Props to PSY for making such an addictive and hilarious song/music video. I’ll end with a picture. I thought it was effing hilarious!

So I would like to share some of the things I’ve learned in my life and probably realized I knew these things while being here in Korea.

Classical Music is good in small doses, too much can be sensory overload.

They say that washing your face with cold water is better for your skin. Now I don’t know the science but here’s my thinking on this reasoning. Warm water opens up your pores, cold will do the opposite. Therefore you wash with cold water to make sure your pores stay shut while rinsing off the gunk on your face.

So I decided to skip going to the gym again. I’m feeling a little under the weather these days, the climate suddenly dropped about 10 degrees C within a day/night and I guess this is causing my nose to cry (err sniffle).

I may have mentioned previously but living in Korea has changed me. I’ve lost considerable weight since I’ve been here, enough for students to be shocked or amazed when I show them how I looked during my graduation photos. To be specific I’ve lost around 5-6 kg. I can attest that I feel lighter and I fit better into my clothes. It seems Korean clothes were designed just for me! Especially regarding jeans and the like, the fashion in Korea is top-notch in my humble opinion. Maybe it’s due to the different diet I’m eating these days or going to the gym (once in a blue moon~) but I feel a lot healthier now then I ever did in Texas.

Anyways I had to do a lot of shopping in Korea due to the clothes I brought with me are ‘too big’ to wear in public. (I basically use all my american clothes to work out in haha or use as cleaning cloths). I’ve learned a thing or two about fashion I hope and am learning more about myself in the process. Then again, I didn’t have the disposable income I currently enjoy.

Now I guess it’s time I let you in on one of my ‘secret obsessions.’ I’m sure all of yall got some but just won’t admit it…but today I will unveil for the very first time something you prolly didn’t know bout me*!

*drumroll please!*

I’m obsessed with shoes.

*end drumroll*

Whew, now that’s a weight off my chest! ha…ha..ha. (what were yall expecting something a lot more juicier?)

I never used to think about shoes back home. For the most part, I never really ‘bought’ shoes, they were usually bought for me whenever I had outgrown my old ones and I couldn’t really choose them either..maybe that’s why this ‘s.o.’ of mine is a rather new occurrence so I guess it would be perfectly logical to assume that nobody not even I would be an obsession. (I guess I’m trying to say that this is also a ‘recent’ obsession, hmm r.s.o? 🙂
This all goes back to living in Korea, my style knowledge meter has gone up a few points and I now consider my footwear more. Footwear technology has progressed a lot since I was a kid and I never ever knew about it 😦 Shoes these days are not only highly functional, comfortable but look damn good too! Now trying to be a ‘smart’ shopper (hehe Samsung’s ads for smartphones/devices have a slogan of ‘How to live smart’) I guess living smart means buying Samsung? I degress…Anyhow, when I purchase something I want it to have good utility, durability, and appearance all while costing reasonable. I made a purchase of ‘running shoes’ called Lunarglide 3 from Nike. (I was always given Reeboks that looked god-awful and cheap and so I tend to stick to Nike in my adult life) These boys cost me a pretty penny, 135,000 won to be exact. I don’t know what the current exchange rates are but this is still my 2nd most expensive possession on me (the first being my smartphone! thanks samsung!)

Here’s a picture of these AWESOME shoes.

These badboys feel so GOOD!

I think these shoes fit my criteria listed above well I had to make myself a ‘reason’ to justify the cost a little bit..Anyways these shoes are SUPER light and make me feel so lightweight like a feather or something. I basically wear these anytime I’m not at work and not at home (because wearing shoes in my home is a no-no, but slippers may suffice ;))

Why the heck am I talking about shoes today? Well, first because it’s one of my r.s.o’s that I wanted to share and second because I was actually looking up shoes on the interweb and decided to blog about it.

Oh another nifty thing is that apparently this specific color (which I have) is sold out in Korea. Other colors (one maybe?) have since come out but my colors the best. (The new color I saw says unisex but I think it’s girly – just mixing the colors sky blue and pink don’t make something unisex, it’s more like uni-mpliedsex.) I considered myself lucky when I was able to snag these early one morning. I’d also like to add a note that my friend Tiger recommended I buy these. Apparently he wanted to get the Nike Lunarglide 2’s but they were sold out and he got the Lunar Eclipse instead (which also looks real good!) I being the gentle, docile, and jealous fellow I am decided to heed his advice and bought my Lunarglide 3’s maybe a week or so after they launched. I felt a little pride once I found out that my specific color was hard to find in Korea, hehe. Oh and speaking of my good friend and pal Tiger…he got a girlfriend and afterwards he dropped off the face of the earth I mean Korea. It’s a common story and it could happen to anyone without a significant other. One jealousy was extinguished and another was ignited in my heart…

Regardless, being in Korea has given me disposable income for the first time and I am loving the freedom and power that brings. However, (as a wise uncle once said) “with great power comes even greater responsibility” and now that I’ve bought these shoes, I’m going to have a eat some more 라면 (rah myun aka instant noodle, ramen). Since started working out on-off again, I’ve cut my 라면 eatage considerably. I eat it 1-2 a month now, it used to be 1-2 times a week!

I guess this secret obsession is a lot better than say, secretly being an alcoholic or gambler. My problem is I do everything and so I had to dip into my savings a little bit these past few months. (to clear any possible confusion, no I am NOT an alcoholic or gambler, except on holidays 😛

As per my last post (which I didn’t realize didn’t get published until right now but whatever~) I spent my Chuseok holiday with my relatives in Korea! To be specific, I visited relatives living in the Gyeonggi province (or Gyeonggi-do as they say in Korea). I had a good 4-5 day weekend and all I did was eat, sleep, and repeat (with some family gambling mixed in here and there – don’t worry guys I lost money hehe)

Anyways this was my first time to really ‘celebrate’ Chuseok in Korea. Now what does that entail? Well basically Chuseok and Lunar New Years are known as 명절 (myung jul) in Korea, don’t ask me what the translation is cuz I don’t know. These two times of the year are the only times when the entire (and in my case extended) family get together to eat and talk and enjoy each others’ company. There are also specific foods prepared for these special occasions. First is 송편 (song pyun) a delectable rice cake dessert-type item that is made with sesame seeds. (Yum!) Also my favorite type of meat BEEF is prepared as well. Marinated beef ribs or 갈비찜 (galbi jjim), spicy beef stew 육개장 (yook geh jang) and of course a ‘national representative food of Korea’ (if you will) 불고기 (BULGOGI!) I had all of the above except for the beef ribs because to prepare it takes a lot of work or 손 (sohn – aka hands). We also make and eat a variety of 전 (juhn aka Korean pancakes) some vegetable 전 and my very favorite kind called 동그랑땡 (dong guh lang ddeng) which is like dumplings except they’re round and have BEEF!! (I really like beef :P)

Oh and we can’t have holidays without alcohol and so I enjoyed some of that as well including 막걸리 (mak guhl lee aka the Korean version of sake except its better because I say so) and 맥주 (mek joo aka beer). Oh I forgot another thing everyone does when we get together and that’s watch tv.

I also would like to mention that I helped make 전 and collected some ingredients, namely pine leaves to make 송편 (pine leaves are steamed with the rice cakes to give that oh so pleasant aroma and feel ^^)

I feel super recharged and well rested and also super duper fat after doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and repeating for 3 days straight. Haha it seems like September will fly by in no time what with a students’ field trip coming up as well as midterms. I think I will just glide into October!

Here are some pics of the various food dishes oh that reminds me about 잡채 (jahp cheh) a really good noodle dish with various veggies and BEEF!

It’s Friday night over here in the SK. There’s nothing on the tv worth watching. I had a not so great time last night and so I’m just using today to rest and chillax (that’s chill + relax!)

I’m recently sort of/kind of/possibly addicted to a PC game as well. It’s called FIFA Online 2 and it’s about SOCCER! I really enjoy watching soccer and other things related to soccer like playing a GAME about it!! Anywho, I’m currently No. 1 amongst my ‘health club’ friends, remember THeM? Of course I play it the most often and so that’s probably why I’m in better ‘form’ than the others. Actually that brings to mind the word ‘condition.’ This is an interesting word with many different meanings but I’d like to touch on the meaning of the word in THiS context. Here in Korea they use the word ‘condition’ in all its Kongrish glory as meaning related to your current ‘mood’ or ‘feeling.’ Now bringing this meaning ‘stateside,’ I don’t think people stateside talk about their ‘condition’ in this respect. We would say “I feel like $#%!” and etc~

I had dinner with Sean, yeah just us two. Oh so Tiger got into an accident (read: fight) and is now staying in a hospital. I’d like to talk more about what I think about health insurance and hospitals in Korea but oh that’s another post..I went to visit Tiger YESTERDAY and then the oh-so-much-alcohol-why-do-i-d-o-this-every-time-event happened.

Tiger’s home is in Seoul and so he went back there. I took the ol’ (actually it’s fairly recently built) subway ‘up’ to Seoul (even though technically it’s down but when referring to going to Seoul, it’s ALWAYS going ‘up’ somewheres…I think maybe this dates to basically going to Seoul would bring you ‘up’ in social status??). His hospital was really close to the subway stop (well not really close, but I’ve been getting to walking around so much, it would’ve been a little silly to drive the same distance, oh wait…) Anyways long story short, Tiger said other friends were coming to visit him including GIRLS(!) and that one of them was an ‘internet shopping mall model.’ I only paid attention to ‘shopping’ ‘model’ and thoughts came up to my head but I digress…My original plan was to visit some relatives who I hadn’t seen in a while but…that didn’t happen. I waited for said ‘model’ friend and she was indeed kinda cute/pretty. [yeah she’s not quite and not quite pretty, maybe a little bit of both…] The reason I am ‘resting’ today is because I ended up drinking with several of Tiger’s friends, (turns out they’re his HS classmates and one middle schooler). I drank too much….ughh

Back to dinner with Sean, what we ate is inconsequential but WHERE now that’s the key. We ate at the “Back Door of Gangwon University.” It was cheap and good and so it fit the bill. After dinner I proceeded to flex my Fifa skills and kick Sean’s ass (online) hehe.

Anyways that’s all I did and now I’m watching episodes of The Big Bang Theory and possibly even Arrested Development!

As per my last post I am/was in a ‘slump’ a funk of sorts. Everyday was becoming boring, routine, and almost unbearable even. I didn’t want to bore you (kind) readers with the details of my life because “the details of my life are inconsequential” (guess where that quote is from and you win a prize!) Anywho, I’m on the upswing again, that’s life right? Ups and downs a rollercoaster of emotions if you will..

Today I’d like to talk about friends and the companionship that accompanies said friendship. I may have touched on this topic briefly in a previous post so forgive me in advance. I am alone in Korea, well more like ‘on my own’ but more or less the same meaning. It’s not easy being ‘on your own’ especially in a ‘foreign’ country, even if it is my ethnic motherland. I feel homesick at times, mostly missing the things I took for granted while living at home – homemade food, laundry, clean home (thanks to my lovely Grandma), and of course my friends (yall know who you are 😉 ) I came to Korea for personal reasons and so now there’s no looking back. They say variety is the spice of life but what then is monotony? In my humble opinion, I would say monotony is Hell. Now I’m no means the ‘adventurous’ type but I guess coming to Korea is in itself a little ‘adventure’ 😛

I have a knack for making friends, this dates back to my days at UT while living in the dorms. However, maybe it is due to me making friends so quickly that they ‘go’ just as quickly. I find it difficult to make lasting friendships but I want/need more than just ‘acquaintances’ around me. Therein lies my problem/solution(?) I can sort of ‘weed out’ my acquaintances and the ones remaining basically remain my friends! And of course it is a natural progression that even though we are ‘acquainted’ this can upgrade to friend status. I’m going to leave it at that or I’ll just keep rambling..

The beginning of this semester I had to start anew. I decided I had enough of my previous town and so I wanted to go ‘someplace’ bigger, well I certainly got what I wanted. I am currently in the capital of my province and so it’s a lot more ‘developed’ than said boonies I was in last year. (To be honest though, human greed has no bounds because now I want even more!) Anyways I would like to touch on my friends that I met at the ‘health club’ (aka fitness center/gym). These are real good guys (although one of them KH2 is way too much to handle sometimes, we are of opposite ilk I suppose). I also met a new friend recently (the current roommate of KH2). The moment I saw him the name ‘Sean’ came to mind and so I called him that. (I also had trouble remembering his name but his initials are SC, hmm…sounds so FAMILIAR hmm) Sean liked the name so much he took it for his own. As a result I unknowingly ‘named’ someone and it made me happy! After that I also named KH1 and KH2, Tiger and Jaguar respectively. KH1 is aiming to become a personal trainer and so he wanted a ‘cool’ and unique sounding name that would portray his image. He’s a big guy and reminds me of Wolverine from the X Men so I wanted to suggest Harry but he turned that down…then I thought, hey our Chinese zodiac is the ‘Tiger’ so why not try it? He was immediately impressed and proceeded to give me a ‘tiger hug’ so tight I heard some joints pop (I think they were mine…) As for Jaguar…well he picked that one himself, I kinda wanted to suggest Jackal (because he sort of resembles some sort of wolf creature but…) I guess Jaguar fits because it’s sort of ‘dark and majestic’ kinda how he wants to appear/be. He’s also a rich kid and so maybe one day he will own his namesake in the form of automobile transportation heh heh.

Back to the present, I really like Sean. I think he’s a humble kid and maybe it’s because of my ‘older brother’ nature (and him being younger than me) I like him around me, almost reminds me of my brother back home…I also met Sean at the gym because Jaguar sort of coerced/forced(?) him to come (yeah Jaguar definitely fits that dude well..he’s definitely…I won’t go there in my blog because I try to keep my posts rated G).

It’s Tuesday here deep in the heart of monsoon season and I was feeling shitty (I wonder if that’s rated G, ah whatever~). Work ain’t bad, all I do is show movies until vacation so I’m not ‘teaching’ anything but I’m just so bored and tired. (Sitting/standing around all day can be surprisingly tiring, or maybe I’m just outta shape 😦 ) I took a walk to the nearby National University (because food’s cheap around there and I felt like eating with friends and not..alone) I originally just planned on meeting up with Tiger but Jaguar has a car (not a Jaguar mind you but a Hyundai) and he knew a ‘really good noodle place!’ so we decided to go there, the 4 of us. I thought eating ‘really good noodles’ would cheer me up (cuz I LOVE noodles) but nah I was still in the dumps. To make things worse Jaguar kept making small talk with me and when I’m in the dumps I don’t like to be bothered (it’s a bad habit of mine I know..working on changing it). Anyways after dinner Jaguar went to do his ‘jaguar thing’ aka meeting girls and so the three of us went to eat some ice cream.

We went to Baskin-Robbins because that’s where cool kids go to eat ice cream here in Korea (no Braums here unfortunately, hmm maybe I should START one hahaha~) Tiger knew something was up with me (I tend to show my mood pretty easily, it’s written all over my face apparently) and so he offered to treat ice cream. I just agreed half-heartedly but my inner fatty (or is it outer?) was jumping for joy inside. I chose my ‘favorite’ ice cream called ‘Shooting Star’ (it’s a combination of vanilla ice cream with blue ice cream, cherry filling and POP ROCKS!) I like the Pop rocks, heck I would just eat those if I could but being embedded in an ice cream ain’t too bad either (hmm another thing I could try out in the states if/when I go back) Anyways eating ice cream was a great way to break the ice between the three of us. I’m close to Tiger but Sean’s a relative newcomer but he’s chill so we get all get along~(Jaguar is NOT chill though, I’ll say that straight up..) After eating ice cream and talking it was really therapeutic for me and I learned some more things.

I need to start reading books again, real books and not comic books…

Positive thinking is the way to go and

I need to stop bashing myself so much! I’m a mellow yellow dude and I don’t give a fock about anything.

This is a double-edged sword because sometimes just not giving a fock makes me not want to do..a fock (anything) Hence, I’m a perpetual hamster in a wheel, except this wheel is a wheel of despair. Circling and circling into the abyss…I know it won’t happen overnight but with the help of these friends I hope to overcome and conquer…myself. I’m going to start reading again, positive thinking needs a foundation I’m sure and both my friends have read quite a few books on the topic apparently. I’m gonna roll with it because I’m down with it and I also get jiggy wit it (wait that last one…oh nevermind)

Korea is a cool place, I’ve met some cool people and well, I’m not going to give up. “Can’t stop won’t stop don’t stop” I think those are the lyrics to a K pop song but I can’t remember exactly because they all sort of blend together.

Can’t wait till vacation, I’m going to spend it catching up with various peoples around Korea. I’ll be sure to update yall accordingly~

“I love sweat”
No I’m not being serious but this is a serious marketing slogan of a certain product here in Korea. I never knew about this product before coming here and because of the name (and marketing slogan) I avoided it somewhat. However! This stuff is pretty good, it’s called Pocari Sweat and it looks like this

I love sweat

Those clever (insidious?) guys over in Japan came up with this sweaty concoction. It’s basically the equivalent of Gatorade except it looks like sweat. That being said, the taste is…interesting. It kind of tastes like sweat! Hahaha~Nevertheless I sometimes pick some of this stuff up after working out because what better way to replace my hard earned sweat…with some Pocari Sweat!! Jokes aside, I like(?) this drink because it tastes less sweet than other ‘sports drinks’ That and because I’m tired of drinking the one flavor of Gatorade/Powerade that they have here…(Seriously, only Lemon-Lime Gatorade and Mountain Blast Powerade!? WTF)

Now why am I touching on this ‘sweaty’ topic? Because it’s damn HOT and I could sure use some right now! hahaha

I’m going to go drink some as soon as I get home…like a drug addict craving his fix, I need my Pocari Sweat!!!

*More random nonsense* (some of these are from more songs I like)
– Time is a healer, FreeTempo, Daishi Dance
– Love Shines Through, Break my Fall, Love comes Again
– Learn from your mistakes.
– What goes around comes around (take THAT LeBron James!)
– The mind is a powerful thing to waste. (Mind over matter)
– It’s all in your head (or MY head)
– Suburban Train

And in closing here are some celebratory pics of the new 2011 NBA Champions my hometown Dallas Mavericks!!!